


The Breaking Point

by Steampoweredwitch



Series: Chain of Command [1]
Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-11
Updated: 2018-02-11
Packaged: 2019-03-16 13:28:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13637193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Steampoweredwitch/pseuds/Steampoweredwitch
Summary: Supreme Leader Snoke commands his apprentice to dispose of the General. Ren questions his orders.





	The Breaking Point

**Author's Note:**

  * For [samedifference61](https://archiveofourown.org/users/samedifference61/gifts).



> See end for content warnings, spoilers

It's not that he values General Hux. He doesn't. It's not the smarmy man's cleverness that stays his hand. They've always known, he and Supreme Leader Snoke, that one day the man's ambition would outgrow their use for him, but Kylo had thought that day would only come after they had secured hold of the galaxy, and could afford to retire the man by force to some out-of-the-way planet to live in relative luxury for his successes, far from the centre of power he covets so much. This order comes not long after he emerges from surgery, and it disturbs him greatly. Nothing prepared him for his reluctance.

  
  
Kylo looks up from the middle space he was staring into when the knock at his door breaks him out of his thoughts once again. He isn't meditating… hasn't been able to since Snoke ended their communication. Hux is on the other side of the door, impatient and seeking him out for some “dire” matter that seems trivial. He turns his back on the door, determined to ignore the incessant pounding. It's too soon. He has to seek within himself before he can follow through on his instructions and resume his teachings. The last time he murdered someone for his master without thought, he only tore a deeper hole in himself. 

 

Could it be possible that Snoke was wrong about Han Solo?   
  
He shakes his head, painfully wrenching the stitches on his neck. The pain doesn't pluck the treasonous thought from his head, or chase away the presence lingering outside his door. Whatever it is Hux has to discuss must be important, if he's still standing there. He's stopped knocking, at least. 

 

Kylo exhales until he's so empty it aches, willing him to go. The conflict remains. If he does not dispose of the failure, Snoke will, and Kylo will lose all favour with his master. And yet, the thought remains... Hux was not the one whose failures sabotaged Starkiller Base.   
  
  
He cannot remain sequestered for the many cycles it takes to return to the fleet, though he wishes he could. Their pursuit of the rebel fleet has to be tireless. Without the weapon, the playing field is far too level, forcing him back into combat when there are more important matters to deal with. To his immense relief, he doesn't find Rey on the battlefields, but even across vast systems, he can feel her powers in the Light growing. 

 

Snoke has denied him audience until Hux is disposed of, leaving him without guidance. He sets thoughts of her aside with the many other concerns the Order now faces: floundering to get the Dreadnoughts up and operational, to corner the Rebels before they can escape, and so many other things...   
  
Hux tries more than once to corner him. Usually, there is some kind of business on his mind, but lately… more and more, there's been this frenzied edge to his composed aura. Hux, capable of being composed and ruthless in the most strenuous battles, is fraying at the edges. Kylo can't stand in his presence long enough to feign disdainful excuses anymore. He flees the General's presence on sight - sooner, if he can help it. Beneath his mask, he struggles to keep his features blank, as if Hux can see through it.   
  
Snoke grows impatient with his delays. Instead of heightening his drive, as serving his master has before, it only agitates him. Hux has been a nuisance, always scrambling to be Kylo's equal, but  he also performed remarkably during the strike on the oscillator - better than Kylo did. Scarcely recovered from his battle with the scavenger and the traitor, he throws himself into the war, hoping that his master has enough faith left in him to leave him to his task.   
  
It is a dream that begins the end for them.   
  
Kylo wakes with a strangled sound caught in his throat. For long, breathless minutes, he is wild and unhinged, but bound helpless by his despair. He’s dreamt of the bridge before, of Han haunting him with his sad eyes, his grim determination, but this… it crossed the border between vision and dream and vision again. This time, Solo shifted and became Hux, and his mouth formed words that neither the General nor his father would ever truly say. Sometimes, he was  clear enough to feel under his fingers, and others, he was made of shadow. He trusted Snoke to guide him down the path to the Dark Side, just as Hux believed the promises made to him once as Hux drawn his blaster on his father, too. Snoke called them obstacles to greatness. Kylo could have sworn he meant to lash out at his master, but the scene changed abruptly, and he plunged his lightsaber through Hux's body… watched it crumple against him…

 

He grips his chest, trying to keep his heart from pounding straight through his ribs, and failing to keep the crushing guilt at bay. It was all for nothing before. Solo's death changed  _ nothing.  _ It will be no different, he tells himself - but the truth weighs him down. For reasons he is afraid to even think, losing Hux on top of everything else he has sacrificed will destroy him. Kylo falls to his knees beside the bed. He scrambles for his communicator, and crawls to the place Snoke expects him to kneel.    
  
"I sense your loss, my apprentice," the cold rasp of his master greets him. "Tell me - have you completed your task?"   
  
Still trembling, he chokes back the emotion clogging his throat. "I - yes, master," he confesses. It feels genuine. It was only a dream, but he can see it so clearly. Hux standing with him on the bridge, the shock and pain lancing through his eyes... The way he grabbed for Kylo's robes as his knees went weak, deadweight falling into his arms. 

 

Han had at least understood. There had been forgiveness in his eyes, surrender. Hux's were only wounded. He still can't understand that damned softness. Why he's held so tightly when it was Kylo...   
  
"There's nothing quite like it," Snoke cuts through his thoughts, reveling in the fictitious success Kylo has laid before him. "Watching the light drain from the eyes of someone who loves you… now you understand, my apprentice. The Light disguises itself in many forms. Rooting them out at the core is the only way to true darkness."   
  
His words begin to fade. Kylo looks up and sees his lips still moving. Dreaming again, clarity comes to him. This has never been about his training. In fact - he's certain now, more than ever, that Snoke never cared about making him stronger in the slightest. 

 

He rises, no longer hearing empty promises of strength and glory. It seems obvious now. Snoke's deceptions are transparent to him now.   
  
"I am ready to complete my training," he says, feeling serene for quite possibly the first time in his life.   
  
"Good." Snoke sits back in his throne, observing him. How Kylo could never perceive his sadism and mockery for what they were before… how it took Han Solo to show him… he feels the Dark Side pressing against his thoughts, urgring him to be complacent, cooperative. "Come to me. We will exterminate the Jedi, and at last have dominion."   
  
Kylo bows his head, and waits for Snoke to end the transmission. Only then does he summon his saber and slash clean through the helmet someone went through such pains to recover. As if on cue, there is a knock at his door. He throws his walls up around himself, blocking his own senses to the presence he might sense on the other side of the durasteel. It's only a ghost, he tells himself. The ghost calls his name, and it's subdued. He steels himself, still not recovered from his nightmares, even with the strange insight he's gained.   
  
The door slides open, to Hux's surprise. He steps over the threshold, and Kylo finally sees just how wrecked he has been since Starkiller. The bags under his eyes are unnaturally prominent. He isn't eating, or sleeping. Kylo swallows down his memories of Hux from before. He looks diminished.   
  
"Ah. Good. You're-" Hux falters. Kylo intervenes before it's too late.   
  
"Supreme Leader Snoke has summoned me. You will be coming with me."   
  
"I - of course. I will arrange the course changes."   
  
"No."   
  
Predictably, Hux bristles. Kylo talks over his indignant response, "As far as the Supreme Leader, or anyone else knows, you're dead. I killed you last night."   
  
He seals the door so the General can't back away, trying his best to ignore the beginnings of fear seeping into the air. Hux's back hits the wall. A frightened animal, cornered, counting his options - none of them good. Kylo reaches out and touches his temple, gathering the Force around them. "Don't worry. This won't hurt," he promises.   
  
Hux slumps abruptly. He gathers the body to his chest, concentrating on the dead weight of him. He carries the General to his ship, unmasked and collected for once, wiping memory after memory of their passing as he walks to the hangar. With Hux laid on the gangway behind him, he powers up the ship and prepares for launch.   
  
  
  
It's anticlimactic, in the end. For all Snoke's power, his constant machinations, his promises and prophecies, all it comes down to is timing. He approaches the Supremacy late into artificial night cycle, and directs the operators to neglect protocol demanding they announce his presence. All it takes is a curt, "The Supreme Leader is aware of my arrival," and they obediently let him through, too used to Snoke overriding their will with his own to resist Kylo Ren's newfound resolve. Walking those halls, with Hux floating behind him, he doesn't feel like himself. The crew lets him pass as if unseen, and upon entering his chambers, the disruption he makes in the Force is so minimal that his master slumbers on, unaware.   
  
He had contemplated using his saber, fantasized about carving him up inch by inch by inch, but in the end, the blade knows him too well. It would sing in his hand if he ignited it. Instead, he holds out his hand, targeting Snoke's vital functions one by one. He presses gently on Snoke's thoughts, filling him with sleep, sleep too deep to resist, and then claws his fingers over the feeble, scarred chest. It takes so long, slowing his heart beat with coaxing nudges from the Force, drugging him into a deep state of unconsciousness. The heart in his palm slows to a crawl, and he feels it jolt wildly, well aware now that it's pumping too slowly to keep the host alive. Ren bears down, smothering its fear as swiftly as he can.   
  
This isn't the end Snoke deserves. No dramatic monologues, no battles or explanations or pleading. Kylo simply takes his understanding, which seems to stretch through all the ages, to touch every manipulative string of the Force Snoke had ever wrought, and snipping them away… encouraging them all, even the ones keeping this brittle, blackened heart beating, to just let go.   
  
There is quiet in the room. A pause as long as a lifetime… then the sensation of weight lifting from the space, as if he were a burden on the entire galaxy, toying with it for no other reason than it being possible in the first place. 

 

The stench of death is quick to follow. Kylo ignites his saber long enough to sever the head, just to be sure. It is almost - disappointing, for it to be over so quietly. He carries Hux in his arms again, this time to the throne room. The head floats garishly behind them. When his co-commander awakens, he will explain it all...

**Author's Note:**

> Content warnings: Character death warning is for Snoke, not Hux
> 
> I want to do a follow up for this piece, for Hux's reactions to all this, and to give a better explanation of what exactly is going on here.


End file.
